This OXP has been brewing for a while, and was always intended to be the "part 2" to my Bounty System OXP. My goal was to create an bounty hunting system where you have to work at it in order to find a target. There is no simple trigger to make a target spawn - you have to be in the right place at the right time. Which means that you have to calculate for yourself what the most likely "right place" is. If this sounds vague it's because it's kind of meant to be.

So what's in the box? After installing the OXP (the "Bounty System" OXP is a requirement) you will see some additional menus in the "GalCop Security Office". Firstly, there's the "View GalCop's 'Most Wanted' list".

This will display a list of all the pilots in the current galaxy who are carrying around a significant bounty. You will also see the name of the system they were last seen in, when the information was last updated, and the amount of the bounty.

Selecting one of these entries will display additional information about the pilot: their last known location and likely destination, what type of ship they're flying, last known location and date updated.

This is the basic version of the information. However, after purchasing a "Bounty Hunters Licence" (800cr from any TL11 system or higher), the screen will have some additional information.

This includes their probable destination (and when they are due to arrive), and a history of their last three sightings.

A sighting is defined as being when they docked at a main station.

The bounties will move around the chart based on a variety of rules, linked to what type of character the bounty is. For instance, a trader will likely be doing a milk run somewhere, or could be following a spacelane. Pirates could be jumping back and forward between a safe/dangerous system combination, and a courier might be doing a cross-chart run. Monitoring the places bounties travel to can help identify where they are likely to head next. It is recommended you install the "GalCop Galactic Registry" OXP, as this will give you access to spacelane details in game, help you track down milk runs and safe/dangerous systems. Or you can use external resources. Up to you.

Some extra options are also available after the licence is purchased. You can choose to add this bounty to the F5F5 Manifest screen, which allows you to keep up-to-date on the latest information for a bounty, and you can also wait for a period of time (anywhere from 1 to 12 hours).

There are two ways a bounty can be found - either by arriving in a system ahead of them and waiting at the witchpoint, or by arriving in a system after them and finding them at a station. If you have the Station Dock Control OXP and Smugglers OXP installed, you can search dock lists for your target, and if you find them, you can flag their ship for notification with the Dock Master. If the Dock Master is available, you can request that the destination of the bounty is unlocked, which will then allow you to launch before or after them.

If Station Dock Control is not installed, then you have no option but to wait outside either the main station or a Rock Hermit, and monitor launching ships.

There is another option available from the Security Office once a licence has been purchased. This is the "Bounty Hunter Noticeboard". The noticeboard is an unmoderated list of messages from sources of varying quality, indicating where bounties have been seen.

Select a message from the list to view the detail.

Hopefully these tools will be sufficient in helping you track down the bounties.

If order to get the full bounty amount, you will need to have scanned the ship with the Warrant Scanner (part of the Bounty System OXP), to reveal their bounty in the current system. If you manage to destroy a bounty, you can claim an additional processing fee, called a "Bounty bonus" by travelling to the GalCop HQ in the sector and submitting your claim.

There's a chance I've made it either too hard or too easy to find the bounties. It's a fine line between too little information and too much. I think I've erred on the side of too much, but please let me know what your experiences are like.

I also may have made the bounties themselves a bit on the tough side. One thing to note, though. You can continue to track bounties, even after meeting them. If you have a failed engagement with them, they will continue to travel around the system, meaning you can just catch up with them and try again. Also, bounties might have escorts, but the system will keep track of any escorts you manage to splash, so the more times you engage the target and destroy an escort, the easier it will be the next time.

Nice! An idea: when the player has license and arrive into a new system, the nav buoy could send a message about the lastly seen most wanted ships, just after a few seconds delay to avoid info jam at arrive. This can confirm the presence of the target, giving motivation to hunt and also a reminder within many other todo.

Nice! An idea: when the player has license and arrive into a new system, the nav buoy could send a message about the lastly seen most wanted ships, just after a few seconds delay to avoid info jam at arrive. This can confirm the presence of the target, giving motivation to hunt and also a reminder within many other todo.

Don't give for free what you can sell . This is a bit off topic, but one thing I don't like with Broadcast MFD is that it makes the Wormhole scanner far less interesting (plus, it seems a bit unwise for a lone trader to reveal its destination to a stranger). So, perhaps some messages could become offers to buy information (wormhole destination, high bounty sightings,...).

Aside from that, This new OXP seems to give the bounty hunter career a very nice boost.

Version 0.2 has just been released which fixes some egregious bugs (thanks for the heads-up, Rustem!).

Quote:

one thing I don't like with Broadcast MFD is that it makes the Wormhole scanner far less interesting

In defence of Broadcast Comms MFD, it allows the player to do what, in essence, other ships do when they announce to all and sundry, "Anyone heading to Lave? I'll give you a lift if you want some company." (which is a part of the core code, I believe). Also, it's not guaranteed that asking if anyone is heading your way will produce a result.

Anyway, re:Most Wanted, the idea about the WP beacon is a good one, thanks Norby. It certainly something I'll consider if the current means of tracking prove to be inadequate.

Adding "info for sale" messages via Broadcast comms is another good idea, thanks Astrobe! Again, I'll see how current methods work first, and then look to expand if required.

"Anyone heading to Lave? I'll give you a lift if you want some company." (which is a part of the core code, I believe).

Comms packA I believe.

Quote:

"commsPackA_optimist_selectedWitchspaceDestination" = ("Anyone heading for [oolite_witchspaceDestination]? I'll give you a lift if you want some company…","They say there's good prices at [oolite_witchspaceDestination].","","","");

I haven't had a chance to try this out yet, but it looks very interesting.
Thanks for yet another cool oxp phkb!

This is what I was looking for that completes my bounty hunter career, now I can chase down bounty heads like in Cowboy Bebop. Nice extra payday in addition to my towbar bounty heads. Nice work phkb, this is a fine replacement for random hits oxp!

_________________"Proof is in the eyes man, when you know, you know"
Flying the D.T.T. War lance, Sundalo
Rank: Dangerous

Just so it's clear to everyone, this is not intended as a replacement, either under the hood or in the game world, to Random Hits. Both OXP's should work fine side-by-side. RH is a kind of "underworld" contract assassin role, where a specific person has ordered a hit on a specific target, who will be in a certain system at a certain time. MW is more of an "official" system, where GalCop advertises the Most Wanted list, provides some data, but everything else (like finding the target) is left up to the player. Even the motivation for the player to pursue these targets is left up to them. GalCop doesn't publish crime lists, although the size of these bounties would indicate a significant crime(s).

So, you don't have to lose Griff's beautiful Space Bars to run this OXP!